CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : U.S. SENATE : Seymour Urges Tough Handling of Rioters

In a new television ad that began airing Tuesday, Republican Sen. John Seymour calls for tough handling of lawbreakers who participated in the Los Angeles riots, but in the same 30 seconds promotes education programs for welfare mothers and tax cuts for inner-city businesses.

One of Seymour’s Republican opponents, U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Bill Allen, criticized the ad as a “thinly veiled appeal to racial backlash” and a “flip-flop” on a position Seymour took last week in support of a major federal financial bailout bill to help Los Angeles and other cities hit by urban unrest.

In the ad, Seymour tells viewers, “We can’t be tough enough on lawbreakers,” and goes on to say, with news footage of riots in the background, “We built this country on law and order. Don’t raise taxes for this.”

Allen, who sent Seymour a letter asking him to withdraw the ad, argued that the financial aid bill coming together in the Congress ultimately will require a tax increase. Allen opposes the bill as a “handout” and said it “smacks of extortion.”

Seymour defended his ad, saying that the financial aid bill does not necessarily mean additional taxes. He said money to pay for the programs could come from existing programs. “We in Congress ought to have the guts to make the cuts to offset the cost of those programs,” he said.

Seymour appeared Monday at a luncheon sponsored by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Republican Women’s Club with Allen, Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) and Jim Trinity.

Seymour, running to serve the last two years of the seat to which he was appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson, is running comfortably ahead of the other candidates in public opinion polls. But Dannemeyer, who trailed Seymour 34% to 14% in a Los Angeles Times Poll published last week, believes he has a chance because 46% of the Republican voters surveyed had not made up their minds.

During the luncheon speech and a question-and-answer period that followed, Seymour sparked a give and take with Dannemeyer when he reiterated his commitment to legislation favoring abortion rights and said Republicans should delete an anti-abortion provision in the party’s national platform.

“This is a personal issue. It is an issue that should be addressed by each woman, her family, her doctor and her God,” Seymour said.

But Dannemeyer interrupted Seymour in a heckling manner, saying Seymour’s proposal would extend women’s rights further than the law allows.

Dannemeyer, who is opposed to abortion unless the life of the mother is threatened, said the bill supported by Seymour would allow an abortion right up until the moment of live birth.

Throughout the campaign, Seymour has been portrayed by Dannemeyer, Allen and others as a legislator who constantly tries to balance all sides of an issue.